The Abbeville messenger. (Abbeville, S.C.) 1884-1887, 1887-02-01
THE PALACE
One OF the Most Interesting
Buildings in Mexico.
The Official Home of Mexico's Pres;.
dent and Senate-Aztec Remains.

The Palace is one Of the most inter
esting buildings in Mexico, because of its
dimensions, the curiositics it contains,
its history, and the knowledge we have
of the schemes of tyranny II blood
he'd devised within it's walls. Each of
its six patios is entered through ponder
GUS outer doors, that might be relied
upon to resist the blows OF 4 %catapult,
and these courts are surrounded by walls
of thickness. The building
occupies the exact limits of Montezuma's
palace, and contains the official apart
ments of the President and of the Senate,
the world famed Ambassadors hall, the
Offices of the government, the post-office,
museum, and u military barracks. Prcsi-
dent Diaz has leased a residence near to
the western side of the Plaza, and his
private dwelling, on Humboldt street, is
now the residence of the American Min
lister, General Henry r. Jackson. The
starry banner of the American legation
floats in the soft breezcs above the high
walls and shady gardens of the private
dwelling of the President of the Repub-
lie of Mexico.
After q call upon the Premier, Senior
Rubio, and IN audience with the Presi-
dent, a visit to the Hall of the Ambassa-
doris, and n glance at the we'll arranged
general post office, you arc close by the
entrance of the patio of the Museum.
This court is we'll shaded, and to the
left OF the entrance you are permitted to
enter a small apartment, in which is ex-
hibited the State carriage Of the Empire,
the gift of Napoleon III to C%arlotta, and
said to be handsomcr than the imperial
coach Of Russia.
| Opposite the street entrance to this
patio is the door Of the Aztec hall; en-
tcring this long, narrow chamber, but
recently appropriated to its present uses,
1 found a few workmcn erecting pcdcs-
tails for the gods, and the sacriticial and
calendar stones (rcmoved thithcr from
the Cathedral walls and the patio in
closurc), and the gods themselves lying
around in the most u%ndignified postures.
The idols exhibited at New Orleans were
arriving, and lay scattered about the
completed pedestal Of the "Divinity of
DEATH" or, as Bndalicr insists, tho
Hutzilopotchtli (war god) of Teno-
chtitlan. A few feet distant, and di-
rectly in front of this bloody idol, is
placed the sacriticiai stone. on which
sixty thousand hearts were cut out to
his honor.
The extraordinary carvings on top and
sides of this stone of sacrifice attract un-
limited attention until the bowl in the
center recalls its bloody uses. Into it
the hearts blood of the victim ran, and
thence along the trench to the side where
it was often drank by the sinister priests,
with their ''mattcd black locks flowing
down their backs;" and then, horror of
horrors! to remember that the body of
the victim was served by his captor in a
banquet to friends, with the most deli
cate of wines and toothsome of viands.
Ascending a flight of stone steps, close
to the fountain that throws the spray of
its cooling waters amid tropical plants,
the museum proper was reached. The
first impression was q disagreeable one;
it was made by an intentional display Of
very bad taste by the commissioners in
trusting the painting of Unfamiliar
and his Generals" into an obscure
niche, and denying it even a frame.
Entering the first room you see
relics of Hidalgo v Costilla, the stand
ard Of the conquest, and a noble cast of
the face of Juarez. In the second we
halted at the long table and tho cases
containing the one hundred and seventy
six pieces comprising the ''silver plate
of Maximilian."
The remaining rooms contain the
glassware of Iturbidc, Aztec weapons,
musical instruments, mirrors, domestic
utensils, shield of Montezuma H., por-
traits of the Viceroys, picture writings
of the Aztecs, their pottery and feather
work, together with tho skeletons, min
erals, birds, insects, reptiles, fauna and
flora of tho country.